An Overview of Acoustic Side-Channel Attack

Need for security is an important aspect in protecting private information. Side channel attacks are a recent class of attacks that is very powerful in practice. Most side-channel attack research has focused on electromagnetic emanations (TEMPEST) and power consumption however; one of the oldest eavesdropping channels is acoustic emanations. This paper focuses on acoustic side-channel attack and surveys the methods and techniques employed in the attack; the authors will also see some of the different devices which can be under the threat of such attack and finally countermeasures against this attack, which helps in reducing the risk.